Palomar Skies a blog with news and information about the Palomar Observatory. Postings here will cover current research, history and public outreach events taking place at the observatory.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Weather Update

Palomar Mountain continues to be pounded by the weather and, you guessed it, we are still closed to visitors. Given the weather forecast for the next 48-hours I expect the observatory will be closed through the weekend.

We are strongly encouraging everyone not to travel in the area.

So far we have had fog, trees blown down into road ways, rock/mud slides in the roads, high winds, rain, sleet and snow.

As yesterday drew to a close the snow set in, then it turned to rain. Overnight it snowed and now it is raining again. The rain has given the observatory day crew a chance to clean up a bit in preparation for the next wave, expected later today, that should make conditions worse than they have been all week.

Currently it is raining at the observatory. Winds are around 35 MPH, but I have already seen gusts up to 61 MPH.

Trees weren't the only thing blown down from the high winds earlier this week.